Short course of pred work???

[Mannyman3856]

I'm currently coming out of a flare but I can't get fully over it (2/3 bm's per day + bloody) the doctor prescribed me a 2 month course of pred. After reading the side effects of pred this seems a lot worse than the actual flare. I was thinking on just taking a short tapered course (10 days) has anyone had any luck with taking a short course before? I really don't want to be taking pred while on holiday either! Thanks

 

[Ali29]

I've been on Prednisone since April - tried to taper in June - symptoms reappeared immediately - GI upped the Prednisone again. A short course (2 months) did not work for me but everyone is different. Honestly, I don't like the Pred but it is helping me so I will take the good with the bad so that hopefully in the end, I'm better physically!

 

[GreenwichUK]

I went on a short course of pred in April but I'm still on it and back at a high dose as I keep flaring when I taper. But now also on azathioprine so hoping that will kick in sooner or later and I can start tapering again...

 

[Mannyman3856]

Thanks, my doctor said it starts to work quite quickly usually within a few days, did you also find it to act this quickly?

 

[GreenwichUK]

First time was about 4 days, felt better than I had in a couple of years. But hasn't been as effective at higher dose second or third time

 

[pink&green]

Yes hubby was on a 40 short taper it did help for about a month then flare came back then GI put him on a 60 taper. Now something is funny when every hubby has to have an CT scan with Iodine he has to take 60mg(2 days prior) to prevent reaction and this seems to help go figure :ybatty:

 

[blackli]

I'm pretty sure a 10 day dose won't do much good, and then it's dangerous to just stop it altogether. You need to come off slowly. I have a friend with
MS who gets short courses of prednisone at very high doses(1500 md IV) but max 4 days as you can stop cold turkey within the first 4-5 days. After that your body stops producing cortisol and you have to taper off. When she stops cold turkey though, it's also very dangerous as she really crashes.

 

[Mannyman3856]

The only reason why I'd be taking the 10 days is because I'm pretty much over this flare which wasn't a bad one anyway. Currently 2/3 bm's a day and a bit of blood which isn't too bad. Just I know the effects of prednisone over a long period can be quite bad so not really sure if it's worth feeling like that seen as my uc isn't too bad just wondered if anyone had any experience with a short course on it?

 

[alex_chris]

Since I was diagnosed 15 years ago I had the unfortunate joy of using prednisode 4 times, but never more than one month. The shortest time was 14 days when I was diagnosed... But that should not count as it didn't help back then.

The last time I took pred for 23 days and it was effective. I hope you get your long term medication adjusted or introduced while you taper the pred?

 

[LandShark]

I've done 10-day pred "bursts" about 3-4 times - as prescribed by my gastro (I have had some severe side effects when on long-term prednisone, so we were trying to avoid that if possible). 3 days at 40mg, then down by 5mg/day until finished. It did help, but I usually didn't start feeling better until about 5 days in. It typically bought me 4-6 weeks before I needed to do it again.

I will say, I still had side effects. In particular, the steep taper made me hurt all over - seriously, water hitting me in the shower was painful.

(Now Uceris is on the market and that works very well for me when I need it, so I've managed to avoid prednisone in the last year)